Written on 02/02/2021
The language of wine
Wine has its own language. It is discussed as much as it is tasted. From the erotic to the scientific, the wine lexicon is vast and sometimes mysterious. We've heard the terms a thousand times without ever admitting we don't understand them. Here's a selection of words you need to know and master to talk about "wine" without getting your feet stuck in the vine...
Heady
Said of a wine that is very rich in alcohol, making it unpleasant to drink. A heady wine goes to the head and quickly tires the drinker.
The drinker
This is simply thetop opening of the glass, where we place our half-open lips to drink. There are, of course, different thicknesses of glass to choose from, but it's always best to choose a thin one!
Settling
This is when, in a restaurant, the sommelier transfers the wine from the bottle to the decanter , taking care to leave the deposit in the bottle. Note: this is not aeration!
Basket
This is a small basket (often made of rattan) used in restaurants or at home to hold a bottle horizontally. The reason it's placed this way is that it contains sediment and hasn't been decanted, and you don't want the lees to move!
Balloon
Everyone knows this shape of wine glass: it's a stemmed glass, as round as half a balloon. If it doesn't have a stem, it's a goblet, and you put water in it!
Straight nose
A wine is said to have a straight nose when its aromas are easy to understand, unambiguous, clear and distinct. It's great fun to let neophytes taste a wine and see them find their first sensations on their own.
Here are just a few corny pages in the never-ending dictionary of wine. We could still have talked about éborgnage, barbantane or bâtonnage... but that's only part of the story!
